I'm Coming Back to You (And I Won't Let Go Again)
by Ackleholic89
Summary: This is the next fic in the IJAMOT Saga. It seems the more Stiles and Lydia figure out, the less they really know about what happened, and how they ended up where they are. Please read "Find My Way Back to You" first.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay, so welcome to the next story in this saga. I've tried putting both flashbacks and present day chapters in the same chapter... we'll try this for a bit and you guys tell me what you think. I welcome your feedback. If it doesn't work for you let me know. The first part will be the flashback, and it's separated by a bolded "Present Day" header... If you don't like it this way, give it a chance, because these chapters were both really long...it may work better with the shorter chapters.**

* * *

 ** _Flashback 3.1_**

" _Allison?" Mrs. Morrell whispered softly._

 _The brunette bit her lip. Her arms were folded, and she slouched in the chair in front of Morrell's desk._

 _The guidance counselor sighed and leaned forward. "This is a safe space, Allison. I know what's happening to you."_

" _You have no idea what's happening to me!" Allison snapped, immediately regretting it. "I'm…I'm sorry."_

" _It's fine." Morrell seemed unphased. "You're upset. You have every right to be. Getting bit wasn't exactly something you had planned."_

" _Not something I had_ planned _? It's something I didn't_ want _. I_ never _wanted it. How am I supposed to take care of Dominic, when I could kill him without even realizing it?"_

" _Dominic is your son?"_

 _Allison nodded and was silent for a moment, before beginning again, "I come from a family of hunters. If one of us were to get bit, we're supposed to kill ourselves before the first full moon."_

 _Morrell nodded. "I'm aware of the Hunter's code." The counselor cocked her head to the side. "Are you telling me you're thinking about following the code?"_

 _Allison shrugged. "I guess I still have a few weeks to figure it out."_

* * *

" _Allison won't talk to me." Stiles said as he plopped himself down in the chair._

 _Morrell looked up from her lunch and sighed. "Nice to see you too, Stiles."_

" _She's not talking to me and I'm worried."_

" _She's trying to process a huge change in her life, you just need to give her some time."_

" _But I don't want to give her time, because that means I need to stop talking to her, and then I'm afraid she'll think I'm ignoring her."_

" _She won't think that. Just tell her you're going to respect her wishes and leave her alone, but that you'll be there when she's ready to talk."_

 _Stiles sighed and leaned back in the chair._

" _Do you think that'll work?"_

" _Well, there's only one way to find out."_

* * *

" _Scott," Morrell began softly. "Are you going to tell me what's wrong?" The beta had come into her office and sat down without saying a word. "You were going to tell your parents about the supernatural...did it not go as well as you hoped?"_

" _No," He shook his head. "It went great. They're actually being really understanding."_

" _Then what is it?"_

 _Scott sighed. "I think Malia's ignoring me."_

 _Morrell nodded slowly. "Okay..."_

" _I mean, she's been with Cora ever since they found her, and right now things don't look good...they think Cora was poisoned and the last time I spoke to Malia, she was talking about giving up her alpha spark to save her sister. She wasn't sure if it would work, but I haven't heard from her, and she hasn't been at school...and I don't know if this concern is because she's the alpha, or because she's my girlfriend."_

 _Morrell nodded again, "Well-"_

 _Her office door swung open. "Tell him to leave me alone!" Scott and Morrell both turned to Allison._

" _Allison," Morrell motioned to Scott, "I'm with another student-"_

" _No, it's fine." Scott shook his head and stood. "I'm sorry to bother you-"_

" _Scott," Morrell tried but he just shook his head and walked away. Morrell let out a deep sigh, then motioned Allison to the now-empty chair._

 _Allison sat slowly, obviously feeling bad for interrupting Scott's session. Morrell folded her hands and cocked her head, waiting for Allison to begin._

" _It's Stiles. He won't get off my back."_

 _Morrell let out a sigh. She tried to tell the poor boy. "He's just concerned."_

 _The door swung open again. "Mrs. Morrell I-" Stiles began but then saw Allison sitting down. "Oh...I..."_

" _Stiles!" Morrell said happily. "Perfect. Please, have a seat."_

" _I should go." Allison tried to stand, but Morrell stopped her._

" _Allison, sit. We should all talk about this together." Allison settled back and Morrell turned to Stiles. "Close the door, and uh...lock it this time. We don't need anymore interruptions. " Stiles did as he was asked and grabbed an extra chair from the corner. "Allison, please continue."_

 _Allison looked down. "I've asked you repeatedly to give me some space. Why can't you accept that?"_

" _Because I'm worried about you, Ali. I'm worried that you're pushing people away when now is the time that you really need someone."_

" _Well, I don't need you!" Allison snapped without even looking at him._

" _Wh...what?" Stiles looked as if he'd been hit._

 _Morrell spoke up, "Alright, let's-"_

 _But Allison cut her off. "I've been avoiding you on purpose, Stiles. I can't stand to look at you." Stiles blinked as hot tears sprung to his eyes. "Because this is all your fault."_

" _M..My fault? What the hell are you talking about? I had nothing to do with you getting bit! If you want to blame somebody blame Gerard...you know...the guy who was apparently egging them on-"_

" _Don't bring my family into this!" Allison finally turned to look at him. "I didn't see you being much help."_

" _How could I help?! I wasn't even there when you guys were taken-"_

" _Exactly. You weren't there! Because you were off with Lydia!"_

" _Oh my fucking...are you kidding me? You're bringing up my friendship with Lydia_ again _? Be glad I was with her, because I would have been taken too and then Dominic would have been by himself for God knows how long-"_

" _Jackson was watching him-"_

" _Jackson?! Are you hearing yourself right now? He wasn't even inside the house. There was broken glass everywhere, Nic could have gotten hurt-"_

" _You left him alone later-"_

" _I left him with_ Lydia _, someone I trust a hell of a lot more than Jackson."_

" _There we go again with Lydia." Allison scoffed and rolled her eyes._

" _What the hell is your problem?!"_

" _You're my problem. Being with you has proven to be more bad than good."_

 _Stiles glared angrily, tears still burning his eyes. "What are you saying?"_

" _I'm saying...I don't want to be with you, Stiles." Allison looked away. "I'm saying...I wish I never met you. Any of you."_

 _He stood from the chair, breathing heavily. "Well, fuck you very much."_

 _Morrell blinked a few times. She'd tried several times to interject, but they wouldn't let her get a word in edgewise. "Stiles, wait-" She attempted, but then the door slammed behind him. "Well..." She began as Allison still sat there. "I feel like that could have gone better."_

 _Allison looked up at the counselor with tears in her eyes. "I didn't mean it.."_

 _Morrell shrugged, and told her honestly, "I think I'd beg to differ. I think you meant everything. And I think under normal circumstances you would have just kept it to yourself. But nothing about your circumstances is normal." Allison bit a quivering lip,and nodded slowly."Maybe you should apologize."_

" _No...it's better this way. He deserves better than me...He deserves to be with someone who's going to be around."_

" _Where are you going to be, if not around?"_

" _France. We're moving. There's someone there who's supposed to be able to help me learn control. I may be back...but I don't know when."_

" _Why didn't you just tell him that?"_

" _Because it'll be easier if he's angry with me."_

" _Easier for who?" Morrell asked the brunette, but Allison only shook her head._

* * *

 _Mrs. Morrell was headed to her car when she saw Scott walking to his. It had been over a week since he'd left her office after they were interrupted and she hadn't seen him again._

" _Scott!" She called out to him and he turned to look at her._

" _Hey, Mrs. Morrell." He smiled._

" _You seem happy."_

" _Yeah, I'm going to go see Malia today."_

" _Oh! How is she?"_

" _I don't know. I just finally decided I was going to go visit her."_

" _Oh..."She said with surprise. "Well...be safe."_

" _Thanks. I will."_

 _Morrell reached for her keys to unlock her car, when she realized she didn't have them on her. "Ugh...dammit." She muttered before turning back to head toward the school. She passed Lydia, who seemed to be annoyed as she marched past the guidance counselor. Then she noticed where the frustration had most likely come from. Morrell cleared her throat as she passed the couple whose tongues were shoved down each others' throats. They separated and she gave them a polite smile. "Caitlyn.. Stiles."_

" _Mrs. Morrell." They both mumbled. Morrell shook her head once she passed them. At least Stiles seemed to be moving on._

* * *

" _Lydia, are you okay?" Morrell asked the strawberry-blonde as she sat in the chair across from her._

 _Lydia knitted her eyebrows together and looked around to see if there was another 'Lydia' she was missing. "I'm fine._ You're _the one who called_ me _in here."_

" _Well, I've just seen a lot of your friends in my office recently. Plus Allison just moved away, and I know you two were close..."_

" _We're still close." Lydia shrugged. "We email like everyday. Honestly, Stiles is the one who took it hardest, but he's off screwing a different girl each night, so I think he's okay now."_

" _Did either of them talk about their break up?"_

" _You mean about how Allison used mine and Stiles's relationship to sabotage theirs? Yeah. She told me. She wanted me to hear it from her. To know it was true, but that she didn't mean it. And once she moved, I think Stiles understood it too. I don't think it made it hurt any less though."_

" _So, you're good?"_

" _I'm fantastic! I've got a wonderful boyfriend, it's the last day of school, and I'm throwing an end-of-the-school-year party this weekend. I've got this life thing pretty figured out."_

* * *

" _You're breaking up with me?!" Lydia exclaimed, blinking a few times. When Aaron had asked her to come over, this was not what she thought would happen._

" _Lydia…"Aaron said slowly._

" _I guess I should have seen this coming. You're going to go off to school, and I'm sure you want to be able to date as you wish, and not have to worry about having a high school girlfriend back home." Aaron didn't deny it, and Lydia shook her head. "I guess I can at least appreciate the fact you told me right before my party so that I can get completely shit-faced and not have to worry about the repercussions." She sniffed as she gathered her bag. "Thanks."_

" _Oh, hi Lydia!" Aubrey greeted her as she walked through the door, just as Lydia was trying to leave._

" _Hi, Aubrey." Lydia mumbled as her eyes shone with tears._

 _Lydia could just make out Aubrey's voice saying, "Aaron, what did you do?" As the teenager made her way out of the house._

* * *

" _Scott?" Melissa knocked on his door, but Scott couldn't bring himself to answer her. He squeezed his eyes closed and gathered the blanket tighter around him. He heard his door open and Melissa was walking toward him. "Hey, kiddo... do you want to eat breakfast?"_

" _No." Scott told her softly. He was afraid if he said much more, he would break down again. He hadn't left his room in several days and even missed Lydia's party the night before. Part of him knew she'd be pissed, the other part didn't really care._

 _He was grieving. After not hearing from Malia for over a week, he went to the loft that she and Derek shared. Peter answered._

"Is Malia here?" Scott asked.

Peter gave him a blank stare before replying, "She's dead."

Scott felt like he'd been punched in the gut. "Wh-what?"

Peter smirked. "You heard me." He swankily took a few steps backward. "She gave her power to Cora and while she was weak..." He brandished his claws and flashed his blue eyes. "I killed her." Scott's fists clenched at his sides. "I slashed her up into little pieces and then set her on fire." Scott's eyes burned yellow. "I mean... it was only fair. She killed me first-"

"You bastard!" Scott lunged at Peter but was quickly knocked to the side, and onto his back.

Peter growled and stomped a foot onto Scott's chest.

"You should leave. And don't come back here."

" _You need to eat something." Melissa gently coaxed. "I'm worried about you."_

" _She's gone, Mom... she's dead." He finally let himself cry, something he'd been trying his hardest to avoid._

" _I know, sweetie." Melissa told him as she stroked his hair. She too was familiar with losing someone like that, after having lost her first husband, Scott's father, in the line of duty. "And it sucks, and it's terrible...and it's okay to be sad. But, eventually, you'll have to pull yourself out of bed, eat something, and start to move on." She sighed. "You have some friends downstairs, should I send them home?"_

" _Friends?" Scott asked as he turned to his mother._

" _Yeah... Isaac, Erica, and Boyd."_

 _When Scott appeared at the top of the stairs, the three wolves stood up._

" _Malia's gone." Erica said._

 _Scott nodded. "I know."_

" _We don't have an alpha." Boyd spoke next._

 _Scott nodded again. "I know." He repeated as he looked down._

" _So?" Isaac wondered aloud. "Scott, what do we do?"_

 _Scott raised his eyes slowly to look at his fellow pack members. They were all waiting for him to give the word._

* * *

 _Lydia opened her eyes slowly and winced at the bright sun streaming through her window. A pang in her chest remind her that Aaron had broken up with her the day before._

 _Lydia sighed and readjusted her pillow so that it was blocking as much sun as possible. She'd definitely gotten more than a little drunk at her party last night and now her head was killing her._

Lydia was on her third drink of the night when she saw Stiles standing against the wall.

"Stiles!" She called out and awkwardly stumbled over to him.

"Hey, Lyds." He attempted a smile. "You seem a little tipsy already."

"Aaron dumped me, so I'm drinking my feelings." She raised the cup in her hand. "Cheers." Then she took a gulp.

"I'm sorry. Getting dumped sucks."

"So," Lydia smiled, "Whose bed did you wake up in today?"

"My own, thank you very much."

"Uh uh." She smacked her lips together and looked around the room, "So, then I guess the question is who was sneaking out of your house at 7 am?" Stiles's eyes flitted across the room then back to his drink before taking a sip. Lydia looked off the direction he had, and saw one girl in a circle of several guys. "Erica?" Lydia looked back at Stiles. "She's a new one. How was it?" She didn't know why she subjected herself to this torture by asking him questions that she really didn't want to know the answer to.

Stiles shrugged. "It was okay, I guess."

"Just okay?"

Stiles downed the rest of his drink. "I'm going to need another one of these if we're going to have this conversation."

 _What had happened to Stiles? She didn't really remember him leaving last night._

 _A hand suddenly fell over her torso and she looked down, alarmed. Oh..._ that's _what happened to him._

"Ugh!" Lydia groaned as she walked into her room, and put the skeleton key on her nightstand. "Can you lock the door back?" She asked Stiles, who'd followed her in. She had kept her door locked to avoid strangers accidentally finding their way into her bedroom.

Stiles did as he was told then heard a sniffle from the other side of the room. Lydia was standing in front of her closet crying.

"Are you okay?" He asked her.

"No." She sobbed. "My boyfriend dumped me, and I just wanted to make out with my best friend to get my mind off it and I get beer poured on me, and now I don't have anything to wear." She cried.

"You are so drunk." He chuckled.

She turned to him and crossed her arms. "You're drunk too."

"Yes I am." He announced proudly.

Lydia pouted and turned back to the closet. "Will you unzip me?" He nodded and strolled over to where she stood, her back to him. He helped her gather her hair and swing it over her shoulder so that it wouldn't get tangled.

Seeing the exposed skin of her neck and shoulder sent his head spinning through the already thick haze of alcohol. His fingers hesitated on the zipper, and Lydia could feel his breath on her neck sending tingles down her spine.

"S-St-Stiles?" She stuttered, hating herself for not being able to say his name normally. Hating that she was being affected this way. But then...what was he stalling for?

"Yeah?" He mumbled, but still made no move for her zipper.

Lydia closed her eyes as she took in the feeling of him standing there, his body heat radiating off of him, and the way that the air in the room had turned thick. She could almost feel his lips on her neck and she was in that oh-so-awful position of wanting more, but not wanting to move too suddenly and break them out of this moment.

She tilted her head the tiniest bit to signal to him that it was okay. That she wanted this.

His right arm snaked around her waist and his lips finally touched the skin of her neck, eliciting a gasp from the strawberry blonde. His left hand began to slowly unzip her dress, and she brought her right hand up to grasp the hand around her waist, letting him know for sure that she wasn't giving off any mixed signals.

This was different. Different than any other make-out session. Even different than the time(s) they had sex. Usually it was one of them (namely her) telling the other one audibly 'let's make out', and maybe their make out session would leave her feeling lightheaded and dizzy. This time though, just being near him put her head into a fog, and there was no reason to say anything. Maybe it was because they were both dealing with break ups. Maybe she just wanted a distraction- God knows Stiles had been looking for distractions left and right. And somewhere inside of her, she knew that's exactly what she was. But right now, she didn't care.

 _Lydia laid there waiting for the regret to sink in. Last night was so...heated...so unlike anything they'd ever done before. Did that mean something changed between them? Would they ever be just friends again? Had they just fucked everything up? Lydia winced as as she silently reminded herself 'no pun intended.'_

 _Her hand had come up to rest on top of his, and she felt him tug her closer against him. She couldn't stop the smile that immediately flooded her features._

 _She decided she was going to roll with whatever happened. At worst, they could play it off as a drunken hook up, and it wasn't like they hadn't had sex before. 'I don't really remember anything anyway,' she practiced in her head._

 _She sighed and eventually fell back asleep._

 _When she woke up again, she had rolled over so she was facing the other side of the bed...the_ empty _other side of the bed._

 _Okay, she took it back. This was definitely the worst. The worst scenario was that he would sneak off and pretend it never happened. He would assume she was too drunk to remember anything and then ignore the fact that they'd hooked up. She'd become just another notch in Stiles Stilinski's post._

 _'You were the first notch though,' she silently reminded herself._

" _That's not the point." She whispered quietly, and swallowed the lump in her throat. How could he do this? When did he become this person? How could he-_

" _Oh, hey you're up." She turned her head to her door and saw him standing there, fully dressed aside from his shoes. "I was just getting started on the clean-up process."_

 _She let out a breath which turned into a sob and she immediately covered her face with both of her hands out of embarrassment._

" _Whoa, Lyds, are you okay?" He asked softly and came to sit down on the bed next to her._

" _I'm sorry." She told him with a strangled laugh/sob and shook her head. She wiped her eyes as she moved her hands. "I just freaked out for a minute."_

 _His face paled, "Why?"_

" _Because I-" She started to tell him confidently, but then second guessed herself and his reaction. "I..."She said again, softly and slowly. "I thought you left."_

 _He breathed a sigh of relief, and Lydia was able to release the breath she had been holding. "Why would you think that?"_

" _I don't know." She shrugged. "You tell me." Stiles looked away and Lydia continued. "I mean...I woke up and you weren't here...and you_ were _here..."_

" _Is this your way of saying you want to talk about it?"_

" _I don't know...Is there something to talk about? Because for all I know I-"_

 _Stiles put his finger on her lips to silence her. "Lydia...before you go off on a highly compelling argument about how nothing really happened... I don't...regret...what happened."_

" _Really?" Her speech was muffled behind his finger._

 _He chuckled as he moved his hand and nodded. "Really."_

" _I don't regret it either. I thought I would." She decided honesty was the best way to go. "I laid here for a really long time just waiting to start hating myself, and it never happened." She took a deep breath as she prepared herself to say the other thing that had been on her mind. "You have to admit...it wasn't like...how it normally is...if that makes any sense."_

 _He nodded. "No...I get it. And it's not like we haven't...done_ that _before...it just wasn't as...planned?"_

" _Not that much planning went in to anything else we've done..."_

" _True."_

" _But, I do get what you mean. It was just...sort of...in the moment."_

" _Yeah!"_

 _They both went silent for a moment before Lydia finally attempted to say what they both were thinking. "It wasn't...bad."_

" _No..." He shook his head. "No it wasn't." He took a deep breath before saying, "It was actually..._ really _good."_

" _Like..._ really, really _good." Lydia agreed quickly and nodded._

" _Right?!"_

" _I mean... not that last time was bad, but it was-"_

" _-The first time."_

" _Exactly."_

 _They got quiet again. Lydia began picking at her fingernails and Stiles was tapping his hands together._

 _Lydia could feel a slight awkwardness as they sat there._

" _I'm still nake-"_

" _I've noticed." He interrupted her with a nod. Lydia bit back a smile. "Okay, here's a thought." He said, apparently having used the silence to work up the nerve to suggest what was coming._

" _Okay..."_

" _We both just recently got out of relationships."_

 _Lydia waited a moment to see where he was going with that observation. "True?"_

 _He shook his head. "No it's not a true/false thing... it's just a statement..."_

" _Okay then. Are you going to elaborate or...?"_

" _Yeah just...okay...you know how before Allison and Aaron, we would do that thing where we would just like..make out sometimes."_

" _Yes..."_

" _Okay good." He nodded._

" _God, Stiles just say what you're thinking, because I'm having a really hard time following."_

" _I think we should have sex!" He blurted._

 _Lydia raised an eyebrow. "But...we did...like...more than once."_

" _I know..." He took a deep breath. "I meant that, neither of us should be in a relationship right now since we both just got out of one, and God...Lydia...that sex was_ really _good."_

" _We've established how awesome the sex was."_

" _I know! But like.. you don't understand-"_

" _Then make me understand!"_

" _Okay, I've been with different girls since Allison and I broke up, and none of them were worth a second time."_

" _That makes you sound like a man whore."_

" _The point is, I don't know if it's just because there's so much history with us, but I think we should do that again...and again... like..over and over until we die."_

 _Lydia thought about that for a moment. "Til death do we part? Are we getting married?"_

" _No?" Stiles didn't quite seem sure of himself either. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "I just think that if we decide that we want to have sex with each other, it shouldn't be weird. And it should feel normal and not like we're doing something wrong."_

" _Are you talking about friends with benefits?"_

" _Yes!"_

" _Why the hell didn't you just_ say that _?!"_

" _I don't know!" He whined as he shook his head, "I just didn't like the way it sounded...I thought it would give the wrong connotation."_

 _Lydia was quiet for a moment as she weighed the options. "Okay..." She said slowly, and Stiles perked up._

" _Okay?"_

" _What are the rules?"_

" _What do you mean?"_

" _I mean...what can or can't we do? Are we allowed to have sex with other people?"_

 _Stiles pondered that question for a moment, then thoughtfully and slowly he said "No." Lydia raised an eyebrow and he explained, "The purpose of this agreement is to always have someone to have sex with, so we shouldn't need to have sex with anyone else. But like...if one of us is gets in a relationship, then it stops."_

 _Lydia nodded. "Okay, agreed. Follow up question based off of your statement...what if you want sex but I don't?"_

" _What if_ you _want sex and_ I _don't?"_

 _They looked at each other and both laughed. "That would never happen."_

" _Definitely not...but uh..on the off chance that either of us aren't feeling it...we'll just...figure something else out...It doesn't always have to be sex though...it could be kissing...or like...hand holding."_

" _Stiles...the more we talk about this...it sounds like you want to be my boyfriend...but just not call it that."_

 _'No...because...there's no going back from boyfriend.." He put his hands together to show her the imaginary line where 'boyfriend' existed. "There's ex-boyfriend" He moved his left hand to one extreme, then moved his right hand to the other. "Or husband." He brought his hands back together. "Friends with benefits...that's safe."_

" _I don't know about_ safe. _" She looked down, then lifted her eyes to look at Stiles. "But...the sex is really good."_

" _It's_ so _good." He agreed._

" _Okay," she smiled. "Friends with benefits." She held her hand out to shake on it._

" _Seriously?" He asked as he slowly raised his hand to meet hers. "We're going to do this?"_

" _Yes, now shake my hand before I change my mind."_

 _Stiles quickly grabbed her hand and shook it enthusiastically. Lydia laughed and ran her fingers through her hair._

" _Um..." She bit her lip. "You realize I'm still nake-"_

" _I literally haven't stopped thinking about it this entire time."_

 _She giggled, still nibbling on her lip. "You know...we were pretty trashed last night. Maybe it wasn't as good as we're remembering it."_

 _He raised an eyebrow. "What are you saying?"_

" _I'm saying...we just entered an exclusive contract...I mean...we_ shook _on it...what if it was all based on a fluke?"_

" _Are you suggesting we test our great sex hypothesis?"_

" _I'm saying, I'm already naked... so..."_

* * *

" _Fuck!" Lydia collapsed on top of Stiles, and both were out of breath. He chuckled as he tucked a piece behind her ear. She let out a breathy laugh, "Not a fluke."_

" _Definitely not a fluke," He agreed. She bit her lip before meeting his lips with hers. They kissed for a few moments, lips moving slowly and sensually, until Lydia suddenly pulled away._

" _We probably shouldn't tell anybody about this."_

" _Oh..God no."_

 _They were definitely on the same page._

* * *

 **Present Day** **Present Day** **Present Day** **Present Day** **Present Day** **Present Day** **Present Day** **Present Day** **Present Day** **Present Day** **Present Day** **Present Day**

Lydia looked down at the address in her hand, then back up at the wooden building in front of her.

"Is this it?" She heard next to her. Lydia looked over at Kira in the passenger's seat, then unbuckled with a shrug.

"I guess so." She stepped out into the dry Texas heat. The restaurant bar was sort of out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by stretches of road and empty land on either side.

"Why couldn't we tell Stiles and Scott where we were going again?" Kira asked from behind the banshee.

"Because she told us not to."

"Who is _she_? I still don't know why we came."

Lydia opened the door and was met with the strong scent of beer that nearly made her gag.

"Oh, God… are you going to puke again?" Kira asked worriedly. "Because if you do, I may puke again."

"Kira…Please stop saying 'puke'. It's not helping."

"Sorry."

Lydia walked up to the bar and an older woman turned around and looked the two girls up and down. "You need to be 21 to sit at the bar. Can I see your IDs?"

"We're not 21." Lydia told her. "And we don't want to sit at the bar. We're looking for Silver."

The lady sighed and cocked her head to a table a few feet away. "Have a seat. I'll be right back."

"What's Silver?" Kira asked quietly, but panicked. "Is that code for drugs? Did we drive to Texas to get drugs?" Her pitch became higher with each question.

"Kira!" Lydia yelled under her breath. "Calm down." Kira took a deep breath. "Why would I drive to Texas to get drugs, when we could have just driven downtown?" Lydia smirked when Kira's eyes widened.

"Lydia?" A voice said from behind her. Lydia turned around to see the brunette in jeans and a tank top, a small apron wrapped around her waist. The strawberry blonde rose quickly from her chair.

"Allison!" She mumbled before hugging her tightly. Allison smiled brightly and looked over Lydia's head to see Kira at the table.

"Hey, Kira."

"Allison? Is it really you?" Kira stepped slowly over to the werewolf.

Allison shrugged. "It's actually Arian now. I changed my name." Allison turned back to Lydia. "I'm so glad you called me. You took such a long time, I was worried you weren't going to."

Lydia thought back to the letter she'd received.

 _ **Lydia,**_

 _ **Call this number. Ask for Silver. Please tell no one. Especially not Stiles.**_

" _What do you mean you can't tell me?"_

" _It's literally only one line and it says "tell no one"." Stiles shook his head. "I'm sorry." Lydia apologized. "There's just nothing to tell."_

 _He sighed. "Fine."_

" _You're mad."_

" _Yeah…a little…" He rolled his eyes. They sat in silence for several minutes before he felt her lips on his neck. "Lydia…" He tried to protest, but her lips were slowly making him forget why he was mad in the first place._

"Well, it took me a few weeks before I actually read the letter and then, I just didn't have time to call when nobody was around. Things have been…hectic to say the least."

"Hectic? What did I miss?"

Lydia exchanged looks with Kira. "Just… school stuff." Lydia said, as Kira did a bad job of hiding her confusion and surprise. "You know…finishing high school and deciding what college to go to."

"Really?" Allison asked happily, ignoring Kira's look, hoping everything would be explained later. "Where are you going to go?"

Lydia smiled. "Stanford."

"Not the East coast?"

Lydia shook her head. "No, I decided it was better to stay in California."

" _But people are trying to kill you here!" Kira was just a_ tiny _bit concerned._

" _What if people are trying to kill us wherever we go?" Lydia posed. "At least here, we'll have a pack to protect us."_

" _And some sort of guardian angel." Scott rolled his eyes. "Or angel of death."_

 _Stiles sighed. "So far it looks like they've only gone after the bad guys. If they start going after innocents, that's when it becomes our problem."_

"What about you and Stiles? Are you guys friends again? Are you and Aiden still together?" Allison asked.

Kira bit her lip and look down to hide a blush.

Lydia shook her head. "Aiden and I broke up right after you left."

"What happened?"

Lydia sighed. "Stiles showed up drunk at my doorstep and I let him seep on the couch while Aiden and I were in my room…but instead of waking up in my bed next to Aiden, I woke up on the couch next to Stiles." She waved her hand in front her face. "It was because of the stupid sleepwalking stuff," She took a deep breath, "But I sort of lied by omission unintentionally, Aiden got mad, and we broke up."

Allison frowned. "I'm sorry."

The banshee shrugged. "Don't be. I'm not. "

"I can see that." The brunette smiled. "You look so happy. You're practically glowing."

Kira coughed and cleared her throat. Lydia and Allison both turned to her. "Sorry." She apologized.

"Okay…what's going on? What aren't you telling me?"

"What do you mean?" Lydia asked, feigning oblivious.

"Don't do that." Allison sighed. "Look, Lydia, you're really good at keeping your heartbeat under control. I wouldn't know that you were lying if Kira's heart wasn't practically beating out of her chest."

"What?" Kira's voice when high-pitched. "What are you talking about?"

Lydia sighed and turned back to Allison. "I'll tell you later. I promise."

"Okay." Allison nodded after a moment. "Do you guys want something to eat? I still have a few hours left of my shift, and then we can go back to my place."

"Do you have hamburgers?" Lydia asked with a hint of excitement.

Kira smiled nervously. "She _really_ likes hamburgers now."

Allison raised an eyebrow in suspicion, but nodded. "Yeah. I'll get them to make you one. Fries too?"

"Yes, please!" Her eyes widened in glee.

Allison laughed and walked away and Lydia turned to give Kira a look.

"Sorry." The kitsune apologized again, as she bit her lip in embarrassment.

* * *

"Here it is! Home sweet home." Allison announced as she opened the door to her small apartment.

"Ari, is that you?"

"Yeah, I have some friends with me!" Allison called back, then turned to the two girls. "Everyone here knows me as Arian, so..." She looked pointedly at Kira. "Don't call me Allison."

"Hey!" A blonde girl came around the corner with her hair pulled up into a messy bun. "I'm Carys, Ari's roommate." Her southern, Texas drawl was very evident as she stuck her hand out to shake the new girls' hands.

"Lydia." The strawberry blonde shook her hand. "This is Kira."

Kira waved.

"Where's Nic?" Allison asked.

"He's asleep on the couch. Passed out during the second run-through of _Monster's Inc_."

"Thanks." Allison smiled. "I'm going to take them to my room. If Nic wakes up, just bring him in there."

"Will do." She nodded with a smile.

"I'm sorry." Lydia shook her head and squinted at the girl. "You look really familiar. Have we met before?"

Carys smiled and shook her head. "No, I don't think so."

Lydia apologized. "Sorry, my mistake."

"Don't sweat it! I guess I just have one of those faces."

"Yeah..."

"Come on." Allison urged and took them into her room.

"So, it's just you, Carys, and Dominic?" Kira asked.

"It's just _Nic_ , now...and yeah. She works the night shift, so she watches him while I'm at work. He pretty much entertains himself, so the only thing she really has to do is make an extra plate of food for him when she makes lunch."

Lydia nodded before taking a deep breath. "I have a ton of questions for you-"

"I have some for you too...and you owe me an explanation for the weirdness back at the bar."

Lydia sighed, while Kira remained quiet. "You're right."

" _It's noticeable. Isn't it?"_

" _Is what noticeable?" Stiles asked as he continued searching for his tie through the dresser drawers._

" _This!" Lydia screeched. He turned to look at her pointing at her practically non-existent belly._

" _What are you talking about?"_

" _Hello, Stiles! There's a_ baby _in here, and it's graduation day and everyone is going to notice."_

" _Lyds...Sweetie...no one is going to notice anything. You'll be wearing a robe for the entire day."_

" _So you're saying that if I wasn't wearing a robe everyone would think I was fat?! Thanks!"_

" _What? No...I didn't say that!" He went to her and grabbed her hands and held them in his. "Look, you are beautiful. Okay? And you're the valedictorian! No one is going to see anything else."_

 _Her bottom lip began to quiver. "Really?"_

" _Oh...don't cry. Please don't cry."_

" _I'm sorry!" She whined before covering her mouth running back into bathroom._

 _Stiles groaned. "God, I hope that mascara is water proof."_

 _Melissa gave a couple of knocks before opening the door, "Hey!" She smiled. "How we doing in here?"_

 _Stiles sighed. "We're in the middle of the second break-down of the day. And I can't find my tie."_

" _Where's Lydia?"_

" _I'm...in...here..." She sobbed from the bathroom._

 _Stiles closed his eyes and took a deep breath before pointing and repeating. "She's in there."_

" _Okay," Melissa stepped fully into the room. "Stiles, go borrow a tie from your dad. I'll help Lydia."_

 _Stiles clasped his hands together and mouthed "Thank you."_

" _I...heard...that.."Lydia sniffled._

 _Stiles widened his eyes at Melissa, and she stifled a laugh. "Go." She whispered._

" _Thirty more weeks." Stiles mumbled before leaving the room._

"So," Lydia began as she sat down on the bed next to Allison. "You knew about the sleep-walking."

"Of course. You carved a Japanese kanji into my counter."

"Right." Lydia chuckled. "Well, the sleep-walking was accompanied with vivid dreams, but a lot of the time, I couldn't remember the dreams...I just remembered they happened...until one day that I had a dream about Stiles getting shot, and we realized he had a healed bullet wound."

"What?" Allison was definitely not expecting that revelation. "When did he get shot?"

"He doesn't remember...just like..."She sighed and reached into her bag and pulled out a slip of paper. "Just like I don't remember this."

 _Lydia was laying on Stiles's bed in a tight fitting Tshirt and pajama pants, reading a book with her finger tracing circles on her tummy through the cotton. Stiles looked over from his desk to watch her._

" _What are you staring at?" Lydia asked him without looking up from her book._

" _You." He told her simply. He took a few moments, before saying, "I don't want you to take this negatively, but I just noticed that you have the_ tiniest _bit of a belly."_

 _The banshee smiled, still never moving her eyes away from the page. "I know. I can feel it." They were quiet for another moment before she tore her eyes away from the book and looked at him, "Do you want to feel?"_

" _Really?"_

 _Lydia smiled and nodded. "Yeah...really."_

" _Right now?"_

" _You don't have t-"_

" _No, I do! I mean..." He began as he stood. "I don't_ have _to, but I_ want _to."_

" _Well, then come here." She said it almost impatiently, but with a hint of a smile._

 _Stiles sat down on the bed and reached his hand out slowly until was on her stomach._

" _You know," He began. "It's around this time, that if you touch your stomach, the baby will move in response to you, because it's reflexes are starting to develop. You just may not be able to feel them yet."_

" _I did know that." She told him. "And you've been reading the book." She giggled._

" _Guilty."_

" _I told you that you'd like it."_

"You probably knew already." Lydia told the brunette as she held the ultrasound picture out to her.

Allison still seemed surprised as she took the sonogram from her. "I thought I was hearing things." She admitted. "How far along are you?"

" _It looks like you're about twelve weeks now." The ultrasound technician told them as she rubbed the wand and cold gel across Lydia' belly. Both Stiles and Lydia's eyes were glued to the screen._

" _It looks like a baby." Stiles noted._

" _That typically happens." Lydia rolled her eyes and chuckled._

" _And it is for sure just one baby, so I hope you weren't expecting more."_

" _Oh no. Definitely not." Stiles shook his head._

" _We weren't even expecting_ one _." Lydia joked._

 _The tech chuckled. "Well, twelve weeks means that you're at the end of your first trimester, so now is probably a good time to start telling people or...thinking about telling them."_

" _I think everybody knows already." Stiles said._

" _Yeah" Lydia agreed. "It's really hard to keep secrets around our friends. They're too attentive."_

"I'm about thirteen weeks now." She said carefully.

Allison looked confused for a moment, obviously doing the math in her head. "Wait...thirteen weeks? That means you were pregnant when I left."

"Yeah... it looks that way."

"But...Aiden was at school...so...who's the-"

"I don't know," Lydia said confidently, but then added"...for sure..."

"What does that mean?"

Lydia took a deep breath. "Like I said...I don't really remember, so it's really just a feeling but-"

"It's Stiles…" Allison said without looking up. "Isn't it?"

Lydia nodded slowly. "I swear, Allison, we didn't…I don't know how-"

"It's fine, Lydia." Allison gave her a small smile. "Really."

"But-" Lydia began, but was cut off by a knock at the door.

"Sorry ya'll," Carys said as she opened the door. "I don't mean to interrupt, but I was just thinking about something. Lydia," she turned to the strawberry blonde. "Have you ever done any research on Jack the Ripper?"

"What's Jack the Ripper?" Allison asked.

"It sounds like the title of a scary movie." Kira mumbled.

Lydia closed her eyes as she tried to remember how she knew that name. "He was a serial killer in the 1800s, right?"

"Yeah!" Carys replied enthusiastically. "Well…my family is kind of famous because of him. He was arrested one night after he attempted to kill a woman named Mary Kelly. If you look him up, you're bound to find pictures of her. My full name is Carys Kelly. She was a-lotta-greats-grandmother of mine, and people tell me that I look a lot like her." Carys shrugged. "I just thought maybe that's why I looked familiar."

Lydia nodded. "Yeah, maybe!"

"Okay, well that's it. Sorry about intruding again."

"She seems nice." Kira said once Carys was gone.

"She is." Allison agreed. "She's been a life saver since moving out here."

"Speaking of which," Lydia replied. "I need some questions answered now."

Allison nodded, "Go ahead."

"What happened? Why did you leave?"

"That's difficult to answer."

"Well, I ask the difficult questions." Lydia fired back. "You left Beacon Hills, you changed your name-"

"Yeah," Kira interrupted, "Why did you choose Arian anyway?"

"It means Silver." Lydia answer the kitsune. "In Welsh."

Allison sighed. "When choosing a new identity, it's better not to change yourself too much, otherwise it gets too difficult to remember. Arian has the same meaning as Argent, and it's similar enough to Allison that it was easy to adapt to."

"You still haven't answered my question." Lydia snapped.

The brunette turned to the strawberry-blonde, and glanced her up and down. The flowy shirt she was wearing made it impossible to tell if she had a bump yet. "Are you keeping the baby?"

"Allison-"

"Answer the question."

"Not until you answer mine!"

Allison bit her lip. "I was approached by a man that said I was in danger."

"Why?" Lydia asked before Allison could take a breath.

"I don't know."

"Who was the guy?"

"No clue."

Lydia groaned in frustration. "If you weren't going to tell us anything, why did you ask us to come here?"

"Because you need to know something."

* * *

"Do you think it's true?" Kira asked Lydia as they got back into her car.

"I don't know." Lydia shrugged as she pulled out her phone and called Scott. "But I'm not taking any chances."

"Hello?" Scott answered on the third ring.

"Scott, Kira and I just learned something, and I'm not sure if it's true, but if it is, you need to know."

"What is it?" He asked, and edge of worry to his voice.

Lydia took a deep breath. "Malia's alive."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey everybody! I'm so sorry for the long delay! I got behind in writing this story when I challenged myself to write the 25 Days of Stydia Christmas stories. (One story, for the 25 days of December- that was a rough month...You can find those on AO3 under my username Eicartgeorge) And then this website has been a little wonky with not letting me upload chapters. But here I am! I'm back! I'm still trying to find my way back into this plot's mindset, and I've still got other stories that I'm trying to finish/work on, but I assure you that I don't plan on giving up on this story completely. I owe it to myself to finish it because I've been working on it for two years. So, even if it takes me awhile to update, just know the update will eventually come until it's over.**

 _ **FLASHBACK 3.2**_

" _I found another one," Lydia said as she lifted a red solo cup from off of a shelf._

" _Really? You mean that wasn't always there as like a talking piece or something?" Stiles asked from the other side of the room where he held the large trash bag. "Because I could have sworn that area was spotless before."_

 _Lydia laughed. "No, you missed it." Lydia made a move to walk toward him, but he stopped her._

" _No wait!" He held the bag open in front of him. "Toss it in."_

 _Lydia rolled her eyes. "Fine." She took a deep breath then let the cup sail through the air and...bounce off of Stiles's head._

 _Lydia covered her mouth as she failed in an attempt to stifle her laughter._

" _Really?" Stiles shook his head as he picked the cup up off the ground and threw it into the bag._

" _Sorry." Lydia smiled as she continued to tidy up her side of the room. "So, uh..." she began after a moment. "How's Scott? You know...since he found out Malia..."_

 _Stiles shook his head. "I haven't seen him. He's been holed up in his room for a few days." He shrugged. "Then again, maybe that's my fault. I haven't exactly been there." He thought about that statement and added, "Physically or emotionally."_

" _It can be tough sometimes," Lydia reasoned. Stiles gave a small shrug and Lydia began to think about the reason that Stiles hadn't been around his brother. And that made her feel nervous. She knew she needed to talk to him. She'd never really_ had _to have this talk with anyone. And he was her best friend...which actually made it more awkward._

" _Lydia?"_

" _Hm?" She looked up and met his eyes, as he stared at her._

" _You look like you're panicking. What's wrong?"_

" _Nothing," she told him unconvincingly._

" _Lydia..."_

" _Um...okay." She covered her face as she winced. "This is an awkward conversation to have...but it's one that needs to happen."_

" _Even more awkward than the 'do you want to be friends with benefits' conversation we had a couple of hours ago?" Lydia gave him a glare, and he straightened up. "Oh...okay? What is it?"_

" _How..." she started, before biting her lip and shaking her head. "How many...girls...would you say that you...had...you know..."_

" _Oh...um...well... I guess that really depends on what it is that you want to know..."_

" _How many were you..." she cringed at the word, "intimate...with."_

" _Again...it depends on your connotation of the word intima-"_

" _How many did you stick your dick inside of?!" she blurted before blushing and covering her face again. "I mean... for me..." she began while her face was still covered, but slowly lowered her hands, "It's only two... you and Aaron." She took a deep breath. "So... how many is it for you?"_

" _Uh..." he began, and made a face as he was calculating in his head. "A few more than that..."_

" _How many more though?"_

" _Why do you want to know?"_

" _I just want to know how many came before me...and_ after _me."_

" _Oh. Don't worry. They_ all _came."_

" _Oh God!" She wasn't sure if she wanted to cover her face or her ears. Mainly she just wanted to dig a giant hole and bury herself in it. "Stiles, just answer the question."_

 _He sighed. "I don't know...five...six maybe?"_

 _She released a breath she was holding in. Okay...that wasn't as bad of a number as she was building up in her head, but still..."I think you should get tested."_

" _To see if I'm a genius?" he offered with a sarcastic smirk._

" _No,_ Genius _to see if you have any diseases that you could pass on to me."_

" _I always use a condom, Lydia," he tried to reassure her._

" _That's great. As you should. I would still feel more comfortable if you got tested."_

" _Well, if I have to do it...then I think you should do it too."_

" _Fine. I will."_

" _Fine."_

" _Good." Lydia watched as his tongue quickly darted over his bottom lip, and for a moment all she wanted was to have his lips on hers, until she remembered the conversation they were just having. "And I don't think we should have sex again until we get the results."_

" _Then let's go right now." He said quickly, dropping his trash bag and grabbing her wrist taking large strides toward the door and Lydia had to practically run to keep up with him._

 _She couldn't stop the laugh that bubbled up due to his eagerness. "You do realize that it'll still take a few days to get results, right?"_

" _Well, the sooner we do the tests, the sooner we find out."_

* * *

" _Why did you guys come to me?" Scott asked his friends as they sat in the living room. "Why didn't you go to Derek? He probably knows more about the werewolf stuff than me."_

" _Because Malia trusted_ you _." Erica told him._

" _You were always her second." Boyd added._

" _Plus, "Isaac began. "You're a lot nicer than Derek."_

 _Scott shook his head as he held back a laugh._

" _Scott?" his mom said, as she peeked her head around the corner. "Dad called." She held her phone out and Scott walked over to grab it from her._

" _Hello?"_

" _Hey...so...I know you've been a little under the weather recently, but I think you should know...we just got a call about another body. It's the same as the kid that Lydia found a while back. I know that somebody else should know, I just don't know who to tell...so I'm telling you."_

 _Scott looked back at his friends...his pack._

" _Thanks, Dad. I'll take care of it." He stood up straighter and the other three looked back him._

" _Another body?" Boyd asked having overheard the conversation._

" _But," Erica started, "I thought that the alpha pack left town."_

" _I thought they did too," Scott told them. "At least that's what-" he stopped short and took a slow, deep breath. "That's what Malia said.."_

" _So, what do we do?" Isaac asked._

 _Scott shrugged. "I guess we go check out a body."_

 ****PRESENT DAY****

Lydia and Kira were sat in the McCall-Stilinski living room. Stiles stood off to the side with his arms folded as Scott paced back and forth. The alpha hadn't said anything to the two girls. He would stop, open his mouth, close it, continue pacing... then stop and open his mouth again a few moments later. Lydia was having a difficult time avoiding Stiles's amused face as he watched his brother, and the sight had her biting back a laugh.

"I-" Scott started, but quickly stopped, and Stiles threw his hand over his mouth to stop the laugh that was threatening to bubble up inside of him.

"Scott," Lydia finally began. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything!" he blurted. "I want to know what possessed you to leave town without telling anyone-"

"I told Kira," Lydia inserted.

Scott turned to Stiles as he continued his angry tirade. "I want to know why you're not pissed at them-"

Stiles shrugged. "She doesn't owe me any explanations."

He wasn't hearing any of their answers as he kept going, "I want to know how you know that Malia's alive…did you see her-"

"No."

"-did someone tell you-"

"Yes."

"-and if someone told you, who was it-"

"It was Allison."

"-and how do you know that you can trust them-"

"I don't know if we can."

"-and then I want to know-" Scott finally stopped his long string of questions and looked at the two girls, then to Stiles... who was suddenly not laughing anymore. "Wait...what did you say?"

Kira looked down at her hands, while Lydia stood up and looked directly at Stiles. "My letter from Allison was a phone number. I called her back last week and she asked me to meet her where she works…in Texas. That's where Kira and I were."

"Did she tell you why she left?" Stiles thought that he'd asked it, but when he saw Lydia turn to Scott, he realized no words had left his mouth.

Lydia shook her head. "No. She said she couldn't, but she told us that Malia was alive. She wouldn't tell us how she knew or _why_ she decided to tell us, she just said that Malia wasn't an alpha anymore."

"Well we knew that-" Scott said, but Stiles cut him off.

"Did we? You heard that from Peter who also told you he killed her. And obviously that wasn't true."

"And as you keep reminding us," Lydia said with a sigh, "Peter can't be trusted."

Scott clenched his fist, his knuckles cracking in the process.

"Hey, buddy..." Stiles said slowly, his eyes on his brother's hand. "Maybe we need to take a beat-" Scott walked quickly toward the door, but Stiles caught up with him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Scott!" Scott stopped and took a breath. "Where are you going?" Stiles asked him.

"I'm going to go find Peter, and I'm going to make him tell me the truth."

"Let's think about this, you don't even know where Peter lives..." Stiles voice trailed off as he noticed the guilty look on the alpha's face. "You do know... because you followed him. After we said we wouldn't."

"Stiles, what do you expect? I've got a town of people to protect-"

"Yeah, people that may possibly be trying to kill me and my girlfriend!"

"I didn't do anything," Scott told him. "I followed him, I didn't even go inside, and nobody came in or out except for him. Nothing happened."

Stiles shook his head, and Lydia spoke up, "So you were getting mad at me and Kira, but you didn't tell anyone you were going to follow Peter?"

Scott shrugged. "I told Liam and Isaac."

"Let me guess, they were with you." Stiles rolled his eyes. "And where were we?"

Scott looked like he was a little child getting in trouble with his parents. "You had a doctor's appointment."

"Are you serious?!" Lydia practically screeched. "I'm making sure my child is healthy and you're off endangering all of us?!"

"If I thought it would put you in danger I wouldn't have done it."

"But you didn't tell us you did it either!" Stiles snapped angrily.

Lydia turned to Stiles, "So what are you keeping from us?"

"What?"

"Kira and I went off to Texas, Scott is spying on former alphas who are trying to protect us-"

"So he says." Scott injected quickly.

"So, what's your big secret that you've been hiding? We may as well get it all out in the open."

"I'm not keeping anything from anybody! You know everything I know."

"Bullshit!" Lydia quickly countered. "Scott was right, before...you didn't get mad about us not telling you about Allison and Texas. Which means, you must be keeping a secret and knew that you had no room to judge. So what is it?"

"I..." Stiles sighed. "It's nothing like what you're thinking...it's supposed to be a surprise."

Lydia's expression softened. "A surprise?"

"I mean... I guess now is as good of a time as any." He reached for his phone and pulled up a picture of a house and handed it to Lydia.

"What is this?"

"It turns out my...Claudia...did something right. My dad didn't even know it existed, and I didn't find out until about two weeks ago..."

"Stiles!" Lydia cut him off as she looked back down at the picture in her hand trying to clear her thoughts. "What the hell am I looking at?"

"It's a house-"

"I got that."

"It's my house... _our_ house."

"What?" she asked barely above a whisper as tears filled her eyes, and she looked back at the cute house pictured in front of her.

"I got a letter a couple of weeks ago about contacting somebody about this house. I asked my dad and he didn't know, but we went to the bank and spoke to somebody there who said that when I turned 18, the house officially fell into my name. Dad doesn't know when she bought it, it must have been after she left us. While you guys were in Texas, I went to look at it to see if it was even worth keeping, and God...Lydia...it's perfect. It's between Stanford and USF, but it's closer to Stanford. It's in a nice neighborhood, and it looks like a lot of families live there. It's got 3 bedrooms, so the baby can have their own room and we can have a guest room, or a roommate, or roommates if we find a couple... or we can sleep in separate rooms if that would make you feel bette-" Lydia stopped him from rambling by kissing him.

"I love you," she told him as she broke the kiss, and he rested his forehead on hers... neither of them opening their eyes, both just savoring the moment.

"I love you, too."

Stiles and Lydia were broken out of their embrace when they heard Scott's motorcycle. Stiles looked around before realizing his brother had sneaked out the door while they were distracted.

"Sonofabitch!"

"Should we follow him?" Lydia asked quietly.

Stiles sighed. "No...but I _am_ going to kill him." He looked back at Lydia, realizing she was still holding his phone and had gone back to staring at the picture of the house. He lightly nudged her arm with his. "Did you want to go look at it?"

"Really?" she asked, her eyes lighting up.

"Well, it's either that or chase after Scott, and I'm not really in the chasing mood right now." He looked over Lydia's head to see the kitsune still standing there. "Uh, Kira...did you want to..."

"Oh! Um..." She looked around awkwardly. If Stiles and Lydia left, she would be alone in a house that wasn't hers, but seeing as how her boyfriend had just run off to talk to Peter about his dead former girlfriend, who was now his former dead former girlfriend..."I think I'm just going to go home."

"Are you sure?" Lydia asked her. "Stiles and I won't mind if you come with us." She suddenly had an idea and looked back at Stiles before turning back to Kira. "If there are three bedrooms...you're going to USF just like Stiles, and Scott's going to be like two hours away at UC Davis..."

"Kira," Stiles confirmed what Lydia was suggesting. "If you want the third bedroom, you'd be a great roommate."

Kira smiled brightly. "Really?! Okay! Then...yeah... I'll go with you to check it out!"

Lydia gave Stiles's hand a small squeeze in gratitude. "Let me just pee first."

"Texas, huh?" Stiles asked Kira once Lydia was gone.

"Yeah...Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Stiles shrugged. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You just...didn't say anything when we were talking about Allison."

He shook his head. "There's nothing to talk about. I'm just glad everybody's okay."

"Ready!" Lydia said in a sing-song voice as she came back into the room. "Let's go!"


	3. Chapter 3

**_Flashback 3.3_**

" _Dad!" Scott called to the sheriff as he approached the scene... Erica, Isaac, and Boyd close behind him._

" _Scott? You came."_

 _The wolf gave the sheriff a small shrug. "Nobody else was going to. I brought backup." Scott motioned to the members of his pack, but Stilinski was looking over Scott's head._

" _I can see that," he said with a nod. "Is that your boss?"_

 _Scott turned to see Deaton walking toward them with a small kit, then turned back to his dad and nodded. "Yeah. I called him. He's familiar with this kind of thing. I thought he could help us."_

" _I see..." Stilinski said slowly as Deaton approached the small group. "Deaton, good to see you." The sheriff tilted his head. "This way, fellas." Erica cleared her throat. "Oh and um..ladies."_

 _Isaac scoffed. "Well that's a bit of a stretch."_

 _Erica glared and let out a low growl._

" _Guys!" Scott raised his voice and Erica and Isaac quickly backed down. The sheriff said nothing after the exchange. He just walked away and the group followed him._

* * *

 _Lydia gasped suddenly and sat straight up in her bed._

" _You okay?" she heard Stiles mumble next to her. They'd fallen asleep watching a scary movie, but now it seemed that movie was the cause of her waking up._

" _Sorry...just a nightmare," she told him and settled back onto the bed, an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach._

 _She felt him roll over next to her and an arm came around her and pulled her close. "Do you want to talk about it?" he whispered._

 _Lydia shook her head 'no' and bit her lip. She hadn't even realized she was crying until a sob suddenly escaped her chest._

" _Hey," Stiles said gently as he sat up, reaching over her to turn her bedside lamp on. Lydia sat up again, pulling her knees close to her body. "What's going on?" he asked, concerned, as he rubbed her back soothingly._

" _I..." she tried, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself. "I had a dream that someone was dying." She sniffled and swallowed before continuing, "But I don't think it was a dream."_

 _Lydia looked back at Stiles before laying her head on his shoulder._

" _It was just a nightmare," he whispered and kissed the top of her forehead. They didn't move for several minutes and Stiles was beginning to feel his eyelids grow heavy again. "I should probably get home."_

" _No," Lydia lifted her head to look at him. Her lips formed words, but she said nothing. Until finally..."Stay." Stiles was gazing so softly at her, and she wondered if she looked as vulnerable as she felt. "I...I just..."_ I need you. I don't want to be alone. I want you to hold me and not let me go. _Those were the things she wanted to say to him. Those were the things she kept inside. "Just...stay."_

 _Stiles nodded gently. "I won't go anywhere."_

" _Thank you," Lydia said so softly that Stiles wasn't sure if the words had actually been voiced or if she'd just mouthed them._

 _They laid back down on their sides, never looking away from each other, as a heavy tension settled between the two of them._

 _Stiles finally cracked a smile, "I wish I could change into some other clothes."_

" _Maybe you should bring clothes with you to leave here," she suggested._

" _And you could bring clothes to leave at my house."_

 _Lydia nodded. "I'd like that."_

 _Stiles realized suddenly that he had been playing with her hands, and he wasn't sure how long that had been happening. He glanced from their hands to her lips and saw her teeth come out to pull her lower lip back into her mouth._

 _Lydia grabbed his hand with hers and rolled over to face away from him, pulling his arm around her. She heard him laugh through his nose behind her as she snuggled back into him._

 _He looked toward the lamp that was still on and thought momentarily about reaching up to turn it off, but he was just so comfortable. His eyes scanned the bedside table and caught sight of a picture of the two of them. It was the one he'd forced her to take after she'd drunkenly taken her Santa hat off and plopped it onto his head. He had seen it earlier but never mentioned it._ " _You framed the picture," he said after a couple of seconds._

" _And put it on my bedside table. That was the deal...was it not?"_

 _'No, it was. It just..." He paused, not sure if he should say what he was thinking, but then decided to go for it. "It makes me happy."_

 _Lydia felt herself smile as she stared at the picture. "It makes me happy too."_

* * *

 _Scott was standing at the kitchen counter. His hands were on either side of his head, as he stared down at his phone. It had been a long night, and he'd barely slept a wink. Deaton was supposed to be getting back to him, and Scott had nothing better to do... so he was waiting._

 _The front door opened and Scott looked up. Stiles stepped through, laughing at something Lydia had said as the strawberry blonde followed him inside. Stiles finally made eye contact with Scott and the two stared at each other for a moment._

" _Hey," Stiles finally broke the silence._

" _Hey," Scott replied hesitantly._

" _Hey, Scott," Lydia whispered after a moment, sensing the tension between the brothers._

" _Lydia..." Scott finally turned to her. He realized this was the first time she'd voluntarily spoken to him to since the full moon made him crazy and he'd kissed her and...well he didn't really want to think about that. "How are you?" Scott asked her._

" _I'm okay." She smiled softly. "Aaron and I broke up."_

" _I'm sorry."_

" _It's fine," she told him with a shrug._

 _Scott's phone began to ring and he picked up quickly, "Hello?" Stiles and and Lydia began to walk away, when they heard Scott say, "Dad? Another one?" They stopped in their tracks and exchanged glances with each other. "Yeah, I'll meet you there."_

" _What's going on?" Stiles asked as Scott hung up._

" _A body...they found one yesterday and it looks like they found another one today."_

" _Can we come?" Lydia asked. Scott raised his eyebrow, shocked. "It's just... I had a dream last night that somebody died...and I need to know that it was just a dream."_

" _Uh...yeah? I guess. I don't see why not."_

" _We can take the jeep," Stiles suggested._

* * *

" _Scott!" the sheriff called as he saw the beta walking toward him, then he paused. "Stiles? Lydia? What are you two doing here?"_

" _Hey, Dad..." Stiles began. "We just..." Stiles trailed off as Lydia walked straight past the sheriff." Uh..."_

" _Wait, Lydia," Noah turned around. "Where are you going?"_

" _It was a girl wasn't it?" Lydia asked as she turned back to the sheriff. "Brown hair?"_

 _The sheriff nodded slowly. "Yeah...how'd you know?"_

 _Lydia sniffled and covered her mouth, as she looked at Stiles, giving him a small nod._

" _Lyds," he said her name softly and she walked back over to him and fell into his embrace, sobbing into his chest as he pet her hair. "Shhh..."_

 _Stilinski seemed rather confused, as he looked back and forth between his sons, before Scott tilted his head away from the scene._

" _What's going on?" his dad asked, once they were out of earshot._

" _She had a dream that someone died...she was hoping it wasn't real."_

" _So, what? Is she like...psychic?"_

 _Scott shrugged. "I don't know. I don't think_ she _knows."_

 _Stilinski nodded. "Okay..well," he looked back up at Stiles and Lydia and saw they weren't moving. "Follow me." The sheriff led Scott under the crime scene tape and over to the body that was slumped against the tree._

" _Jesus," Scott cringed and turned away._

" _Deaton still doesn't know what's causing it?"_

 _Scott shook his head. "No...at least, if he does, he's not telling me." Scott finally turned back to look at the girl._

" _Are we sure it's not just a deranged serial killer?"_

 _Stilinski and Scott turned around to see Stiles had made his way over._

" _How'd you get past-" the sheriff began, but stopped and shook his head. "Never mind." He took a deep breath and continued, "I don't know. It's possible...but... with all of the new information I've been enlightened with, I'm second guessing_ _everything. Who knows though...maybe it was a regular... albeit, psychopathic... human."_

" _Do you know her name?" Scott asked his dad._

" _Emily...uh...Is Lydia okay?"_

 _Stiles looked back at the strawberry blonde who was hugging herself as she leaned against the jeep._

" _No," Stiles shook his head and turned back to face his father. "She's freaked. I should probably get her out of here. Is there anything we can do?"_

" _Well..Emily wasn't alone. There was another girl, Caitlyn. She said she saw a giant lizard, but then she also admitted to splitting a tab of X with her girlfriend, so she may have just been hallucinating. But...if you want to check into her giant lizard story...I sent her to the hospital."_

 _Stiles nodded then turned back to his brother. "Are you good? Do you need a ride somewhere?"_

 _Scott shook his head. "I'm going to sniff around here a bit, then maybe head over to Deaton's... see where he's at...if he needs my help."_

" _Okay...let me know if either of you need me."_

" _We will," the sheriff promised._

* * *

 _As Stiles approached Lydia again, he took a deep breath. "I'm going to go to the hospital."_

" _What? Why?" Lydia asked, mostly in confusion._

 _He sighed. "The girl...Emily? She had her girlfriend, Caitlyn, with her when she was attacked."_

" _You mean...she wasn't alone?"_

" _It looks that way." Stiles looked down at Lydia's hands and saw the way she was nervously wringing them together. He stopped himself from reaching out to grab them and continued, "I'll just take you home-"_

" _No." Lydia shook her head vehemently. "I'm coming with you."_

 _Stiles stared for a moment before nodding. "Alright. Get in."_

* * *

 **PRESENT DAY**

"I almost didn't see it the first time," Stiles admitted as he pulled into the driveway. "It was like my eyes just skimmed right over it."

"No...I see what you mean." Lydia didn't need for him to explain.

"It looks like someone's been keeping up with the yard," Kira said as she surveyed the land in front of her.

"Yeah," Stiles said thoughtfully. "I noticed that too."

The three of them got out of the jeep and walked toward the front door. Lydia turned around to look at the yards across the street with kids playing on the front lawns, and her hand went to her stomach as she imagined her own child playing on this lawn.

"Lyds," she heard Stiles say her name, and she turned to see the front door open. "Come on." He tilted his head toward the door and Lydia smiled before following him inside. "So, this is the living room, obviously," Stiles pointed out to the two girls. "The master bedroom and what would probably be the nursery are down that hall, and then Kira, your room would be on the other side of the house."

"I'll go take a look," Kira smiled before heading off in the direction Stiles had pointed her.

"Come on," he told Lydia as he led her the opposite direction. "So, this is our room." He opened the door to reveal the master bedroom and Lydia looked around. "And then, this..." he walked across the hall and opened the other door. "This would be the baby's room." Lydia felt tears welling up in her eyes as everything suddenly became more real. "I was thinking.." Stiles continued, "the crib could go here, and then we could have a rocking chair here, and then- Lyds...are you okay?"

Lydia sniffed and nodded. "Sorry...hormones. It's perfect, Stiles."

He smiled and kissed her gently, before they heard Kira gasp, "Oh my God! This kitchen is amazing!"

Stiles pulled away and chuckled, "Let's go see the kitchen."

"Sounds good." Lydia followed him back down the hall and toward Kira's voice.

"Wow!" Lydia said in surprise as she looked around the room. "Did you already do some work in here?"

"What? No," Stiles replied with a hint of confusion. "I just saw it for the first time two days ago. I wanted to make sure it was what you wanted to do before I put any work into it. Why?"

"It's just..." Lydia looked around. "The appliances are all updated."

"They are?" Stiles looked around.

"Yeah, this refrigerator is brand new. The model just came out a couple of months ago."

Stiles raised an eyebrow. "Are you reading appliance catalogs now?"

Lydia sighed, "I went down a rabbit hole. I'm not proud of it." Stiles chuckled and Lydia bit her lip. "It's weird though...right? I mean... new appliances in a house that you didn't know was yours. Who knows how long it's been empty for."

"Maybe there was somebody in charge of keeping up with it. Maybe it's whoever has been doing the yardwork?"

"Maybe..." Lydia replied, unconvinced.

Stiles sighed. "Do you think it's a trap of some sort?"

Lydia shrugged. "I don't know what to think. The timing could seem a little too perfect, if you think about it... or maybe it's just all a coincidence."

"I've never liked coincidences."

Lydia took a deep breath. "I want to live here, Stiles. This place is perfect, and I can see us living here for longer than just college. I can see us raising our family here. I just... I think we need to do some more research before moving everything in."

"Okay," Stiles nodded, "But remember, school starts in August. We can't move into the dorms together because we aren't going to the same school, so finding somewhere that we can commute from is our only option. And everything else I've looked at is way out of our price range. Since collectively our price range is zero dollars."

"I know...I get it..." she let out a sigh, "I don't know...maybe if Deaton comes by he can tell us if there's anything supernatural about the house."

"Okay," Stiles nodded.

"Except," Kira began absentmindedly, "the people who were trying to kill you weren't supernatural." The kitsune glanced up and saw the looks Stiles and Lydia were giving her. "I uh...I probably shouldn't have said that out loud... huh?"

* * *

"Well, well, well," Stiles began as he walked inside his house and saw Scott sitting on the couch. "Look who's home."

"Where have you guys been?" Scott asked.

"Uh, I think we could ask you the same question," Lydia cut in.

Scott looked confused for a moment. "I've been here."

"Okay, Scott. Don't lie." Stiles rolled his eyes. "We know you left. It wasn't like you were trying to hide it."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I've been here the whole time."

"No," Stiles argued, exasperated, "you haven't. I don't know what you're trying to prove. We know you left. We all heard you drive away."

"I didn't go anywhere," Scott insisted.

Stiles gritted his teeth in frustration, then opened his mouth to yell, but Lydia spoke instead.

"Scott," she said slowly. "What's the last thing you remember of our conversation?"

"What conversation?"

"The one we were having earlier, before you _didn't_ go anywhere."

Scott shook his head. "We never had a conversation. I've been waiting here all day for you guys to get home and tell me what's going on with this whole Malia thing."

Stiles, Kira, and Lydia all exchanged glances for a moment before Stiles finally said, "Okay, I think now's the time to call Deaton."

* * *

"So, you think I went to see Peter again?" Scott asked as he sat on the exam table.

His three friends nodded, before Deaton spoke up.

"So, if it was some sort of head injury, it's already healed...and then if it's healed, I would think your memories would have returned."

"So, then what do you think caused it?" Stiles asked the question they all wanted to.

"My best guess?" Deaton asked with a small shake of his head. "Magic."

" _Magic_ _,"_ Stiles repeated.

Deaton nodded. "And very powerful magic at that, if it's strong enough to erase 5 hours of Scott's memory."

"But it should stop at the five hours, right?" Scott wondered aloud. "I mean... I'm not going to forget anything else...right? Wait...what if that's what happened to you guys!" Scott turned to Stiles and Lydia. "What if you had some sort of magic spell put on you and it slowly ate away at your memories until you forgot everything?"

"I don't know..." Lydia shook her head slowly.

"What?" Stiles asked as he turned to his girlfriend. "You don't believe in magic?"

"No...it's not that...it's just... I remember _some_ stuff. It's not like I've forgotten it all."

"You remember," Stiles agreed, "But I don't."

"Maybe there's two different reasons why we can't remember anything," Lydia suggested. "Maybe you two had a spell put on you, and maybe I'm the one who hit my head."

"Or," Kira spoke up, "Maybe you all had spells put on you, but Lydia did something to trigger her memories."

"But we haven't done anything different." Stiles shook his head. "I mean the only thing that's different is that Lydia's..." Stiles slowly turned to look at Lydia. "...pregnant."

"What? You think I'm remembering things because I'm pregnant? I've heard of pregnancy brain messing with your memory, but it's supposed to make you forget things...not remember them."

"Okay fine." Stiles threw his hands up. "Maybe magic has nothing to do with anything. Deaton, we need to come up with another solution."

"I've told you what I think caused Scott's memory loss," Deaton shrugged.

"Well, then what do you think caused ours?" Lydia asked softly.

Deaton turned to look at the banshee as she rubbed a thumb across her belly.

He shook his head gently. "I'm sorry, Lydia. I don't know. But, I don't think it has anything to do with what caused Scott's."

Lydia nodded and bit her lip, and Stiles looked over at her. "Lyds?"

"I'm sorry," she mumbled before walking briskly out of the room.

Stiles looked back at the remaining people in the room. "She's been a little emotional lately."

"You don't say!" Scott quipped sarcastically.

Stiles shot him a middle finger before walking out of the room to find Lydia.

* * *

"Hey," he said softly when he found her in the bathroom, the door open.

"Hey," she whispered back as she sniffled. "God...I hate crying. I feel like it makes me look weak."

"Hey! Crying doesn't make you weak. You're a badass banshee, Lydia Martin." Stiles sighed. "And you're pregnant. Which makes you even more of a badass."

Lydia let out a small laugh, and looked up at Stiles's reflection in the mirror. "I love you."

"I love you too." Lydia suddenly got a look on her face, like she was trying to figure something out. "What?" Stiles asked.

"Banshee..." she whispered.

"Wait...what?"

"The first person to call me a banshee, was Argent's uncle. Do you remember?" She turned to face him.

Stiles nodded slowly as he remembered the interaction. "Yeah...I remember he also called us ghosts and accused us of kidnapping him and blowing up his truck."

She nodded. "Right...what if we did?"

"Um..." Stiles scratched his head. "What?"

"I think we need to talk to him."

"Okay...yeah...sure...whatever you say...but um...one thing... he had Alzheimer's two years ago, and he wasn't all there then...what makes you think we'll be able to get anything out of him now?"

"I don't know. We may get nothing, but we won't know unless we try."


	4. Chapter 4

**_A/N: I know...I know! I'm really bad at updating this story on here. Mostly, the reason was I had a lot going on in my personal life between work and roommate drama, and finding time to write hasn't been very easy. I'm not going to make any promises about posting more quickly, but one promise that I will make is that I will NOT abandon this story. I've spent years working on it, so it will be finished one day!_**

* * *

 _Neither of them said much when they first left the crime scene._

 _Stiles just kept wanting to ask her if she was okay and if she really wanted to go with him. He knew he shouldn't though. She'd already answered both of those questions, and Lydia wasn't one to change her mind on a whim. If anything, asking her would just piss her off._

 _Lydia was the first one to break the silence. "I'm going to take some classes at the community college over the summer."_

" _You are?" Stiles asked, glancing at her a moment before looking back to the road._

" _Yeah. I thought maybe I could graduate early if I have enough credits."_

 _'Oh...when do your classes start?"_

" _Next week." She looked over at him and smiled for the first time since learning about the body. "Don't act so depressed, Stilinski! There's only two and they're first thing in the morning. I'll be done by noon everyday. You probably won't even be awake. You won't even realize I'm gone."_

 _Stiles felt the corners of his mouth upturn. "You say that like I'll know where you are the night before."_

 _Lydia felt a blush creep into her cheeks before deciding to roll with it. "I'm just saying, I feel like these classes could be stressful...and you know what a great stress reliever is? Sex...That's what this arrangement is for. Is it not?"_

 _Stiles bit his tongue and nodded slowly. "Yes. You're absolutely right."_

 _The smile and flirtatious attitude from Lydia evaporated the moment they pulled into the hospital parking lot._

" _Lydia..." Stiles said her name slowly._

" _Let's do this."_

* * *

" _I'm here to see my mom," Stiles told the nurse at the desk when they walked in. He figured if he could find her, Melissa could get them access to the patient._

" _Stiles?" Stiles heard his name, and looked over at the girl in the wheelchair._

" _Caitlyn?" Stiles questioned, before everything clicked. "Oh my God! You were in the woods...are you okay?"_

" _I guess I'm as okay as can be expected," she shrugged._

" _Sorry, we need to get you back in bed," the nurse pushing her wheelchair interrupted._

" _You can come in," Caitlyn told Stiles as she motioned her hand to follow them. Stiles looked at Lydia as Caitlyn disappeared into her room. They were both slightly surprised at how easy that had been._

" _Uh," Stiles began as he turned back to the nurse. "Don't worry about finding my mom. I'll catch up with her later." He tilted his head toward Caitlyn's room and Lydia nodded as the two of them began to walk that way._

 _The nurse was walking out as the two of them were walking in._

" _So, what were you doing in a wheelchair...are you okay?"_

" _I was getting a CT Scan. It's just standard procedure."_

" _A CT Scan?" Lydia asked. "Did you hit your head?"_

 _Caitlyn shrugged. "They think I may have. I...I told the police that I saw a giant lizard."_

" _Did you?" Stiles asked, then clarified. "Um...I mean...did you see a lizard?"_

 _Caitlyn sighed. "That's what it looked like. I don't know...we split a tab of X. Maybe I was hallucinating...or maybe it was a mask." Caitlyn got a faraway look in her eye, and bit her lip. "I walked away for 5 seconds. When I came back, I felt something hit the back of my neck and all of a sudden, I couldn't move."_

" _Like...out of fear?" Lydia asked._

" _No, like I'd been paralyzed. I fell to the ground and that's when I saw this lizard thing dragging Emily off."_

" _Was she...already..."Stiles didn't know how to ask._

" _You mean was she already dead?" Stiles nodded, and Caitlyn shook her head. "No...she looked at me, and said 'help'...but I couldn't do anything." She began to cry and Stiles reached his hand out to place on the top of hers._

 _Lydia realized she was glaring at them and cleared her throat. "Um...what were you guys doing out in the woods anyway?"_

 _Caitlyn shrugged. "It was officially summer vacation and we were going to camp...you know...by ourselves...alone." Caitlyn sighed. "She's never...been...with anyone before." She swallowed. "I guess now she'll never be."_

 _Stiles looked over at Lydia, and that's when she realized she'd subconsciously reached for him, grabbing onto the thin fabric of his shirt. She wasn't sure why she'd done it. Maybe it was hearing Caitlyn talk about her girlfriend in the past tense that made her grateful that Stiles was still here. Her best friend. Or maybe it was the talk of first times that made her reach for hers. She didn't know. She slowly removed her hand, almost embarrassed. With the way she'd caught herself reacting to Caitlyn and Stiles, she didn't want either of them to think she was trying to assert her position as Stiles's...whatever... because she wasn't...and they weren't actually dating-per their agreement._

 _Lydia slowly turned away, but felt Stiles's hand wrap around her own and she looked down._

" _We'll let you get some rest," Stiles told Caitlyn._

" _I'm sorry for your loss," Lydia told her softly._

" _Thank you," Caitlyn managed a small smile._

 _Stiles and Lydia walked out of the room, and before either could say anything, Melissa, who was standing at the desk, turned around. "Stiles!"_

" _Mom!" Stiles replied, and began to take a few steps toward her._

" _Lydia!" Lydia turned her head to see Aubrey walking toward them, and the strawberry blonde took a few steps toward her, letting Stiles's hand go in the process._

" _Were you looking for me?" Lydia heard Melissa ask her son, but didn't hear his response because that was the moment Aubrey caught up with her._

" _Sweetie, Aaron told me what happened. I'm so sorry. My son is an idiot. Are you okay?"_

 _Lydia chuckled. "I'm fine, Aubrey. Really. You know...Aaron needed to be single. I don't think the long distance thing would have worked out. It's probably better to break up in person now than over the phone later. You know?"_

" _Yeah..."Aubrey said slowly. "You know...you're being surprisingly calm about all of this..."_

" _Am I not normally calm?" Lydia, asked semi-frantically._

" _No! That's not what I meant... it's just... The way he told me about it... he made it sound like you were really upset. That's all. But it's good you're not!"_

 _Lydia shrugged. "I mean.. I was when it first happened, but...I've thought about it, and I really liked Aaron, but I didn't love him...you know? I mean... I think I wanted to love him, but you can't force yourself to feel that way about people. Right?"_

 _Aubrey nodded slowly. "Well, I'm glad you're okay."_

" _Thanks, Aubrey," Lydia smiled._

" _Lyds!" Stiles called and Lydia turned back to look at him. He tilted his head toward the door, telling her he was headed out._

" _My ride's leaving," Lydia told Aubrey as she turned back to her._

" _Oh, okay...yeah...let me know if you need anything."_

" _Will do!" Lydia told her cheerily before quickly trying to catch up with Stiles._

* * *

" _What were you talking to Aubrey about?" Stiles asked as they walked out of the hospital._

" _Nothing really...she was just asking how I was doing post-break up."_

" _Ahh..."_

" _Yeah...what were you telling your mom about?"_

 _Lydia hadn't seen the phone in Stiles's hand until that moment. "The same thing I'm about to tell my dad about," he said as he put the phone to his ear. "Hey, Dad. Lydia and I are leaving the hospital right now. We spoke to Caitlyn. She said she was paralyzed...Emily was too...yeah... I'm thinking maybe you should tell Deaton, or let Scott tell him. Find out if there's something that can do that...maybe even something that looks like a lizard." Stiles nodded, even though his dad couldn't see it. "Yeah, you're welcome... Love you too." He hung up the phone and put it away._

" _So...Caitlyn..." Lydia began after a moment. "Wasn't she one of your rebound girls?"_

" _Yeah...it lasted for a couple of weeks."_

 _Lydia nodded slowly. "I never really saw her face. You were always too busy sucking it off when I'd pass you."_

 _Stiles raised an eyebrow and turned to face her. "Am I sensing jealousy?"_

" _No!" she said quickly._

 _Stiles let out a laugh as he threw his arm around her shoulders. "Yeah...okay."_

 _Lydia bit her lip, debating whether or not she wanted to ask the question in the forefront of her mind."Um...how was she?" Stiles turned back to her. "I mean... was she...you know..."_

" _Better than you?" he supplied. Lydia felt a blush creep into her cheeks. "No," he said softly. "No one's better than you."_

" _Not even Allison?" she didn't know why she asked. She horrified herself that she'd even entertain the thought. Stiles stopped walking and he stared wide-eyed. "I'm sorry," she quickly apologized. "Forget I said anything," she told him, then briskly walked ahead._

* * *

PRESENT DAY

* * *

"Thanks for meeting us," Lydia told Argent as she climbed out of the jeep.

Before Argent had a chance to respond, Stiles came around the jeep and groaned. "Lydia, I told you to wait for me!"

"Oh my God! Stiles, calm down! I can get in and out of the jeep by myself. I'll let you know if I need your help!" She rolled her eyes then looked back at Argent to provide an explanation. "My stomach grew like one centimeter since last week and all of a sudden he doesn't think I can do anything by myself." Lydia rolled her eyes, "It's not even like you can tell I'm pregnant unless my shirt is really tight."

Argent stifled a chuckle. "How far along are you now?"

"Fourteen weeks tomorrow... which means the morning sickness is pretty much gone, I'm not as tired, and I'm _supposed_ to be doing workouts." She looked pointedly at Stiles. "I'll let you know when we need to start leaving a step stool in the back." She sighed and looked back at Chris. "Sorry. As I was saying...thank you for meeting us here."

"Yeah, it's no problem...I'll be honest though, I don't know how much you'll be able to get out of him. He hasn't been doing too well. What was it that you needed to talk to him about?"

"I just want to hear his story about the couple that kidnapped him."

"Really?" Argent asked in confusion.

"Yeah...at Kate's funeral he thought that Stiles and I were them...and that was the first time someone called me a banshee. It was like he knew...and I don't know...maybe we won't learn anything, but...I just needed to try."

Argent nodded, "Alright, well let's go."

As the three began to walk inside the nursing home Lydia spoke again, "I saw Allison."

"You did? How is she?"

"She's good. Nic's good. They're both good. She's got a job and a roommate. She seemed happy."

"That's nice," Argent replied softly. "I'm glad."

Lydia hung back next to Stiles while Argent talked to the front desk about visiting.

"Okay, Stiles. I'm going to need you to let me talk to him okay? If he gets agitated we'll walk away, but don't interfere. Got it?"

Stiles sighed, "I'll try."

"Guys, come on." Argent waved at them to follow him down a hallway. They walked through the common area and into another hallway where the residents' bedrooms were.

When Argent opened the door to Alexander's room the older man was facing the window. "Uncle Alex?" Argent asked gently and Lydia and Stiles exchanged looks.

Argent looked up at Lydia as if to say, "You try."

"Alexander?" Lydia asked hesitantly as she inched toward him. "Mr. Argent..my name is Lydia Martin. We met at your niece's funeral...do you...do you remember me?" There was no response from the hunter and Lydia continued, "You... you called me a banshee before I knew I was a banshee. How did you know that?" Lydia slowly reached her hand out to place it on top of his. "Alexand-"

His hand came up lightning fast and grabbed hold of Lydia's wrist. The banshee gasped, and Argent's hand went out to stop Stiles from rushing to her side.

She wasn't hurt, just surprised.

Alexander looked up at Lydia. "Are you going to save me?"

"Sa-save you? From what?"

"I'm going to die," he said softly. "You said I was going to die."

"When? When did I say that?"

Alexander looked away from her and back to the window. Stiles locked eyes with the older man in the reflection, and something in his countenance changed.

"Ow..Alexander you're...you're hurting me," Lydia told him gently as the man's hand began to grasp her wrist tighter.

"It was you," Alexander scowled.

"Let go!" Lydia finally yelled, and Argent and Stiles both jumped in. Argent made his uncle release Lydia's hand as the banshee fell into Stiles's arms.

"Are you okay?" Stiles asked her.

Lydia nodded. "I'm fine," she told him as she looked back at the two Argents. Chris looked up at her and mouthed an apology.

* * *

Lydia sat in the passenger's seat of the jeep rubbing her wrist gently. It had started to bruise. Stiles was saying his goodbyes to Argent before climbing into the jeep.

As her boyfriend opened the door, she quickly covered her wrist so that he wouldn't see it.

Neither of them said anything immediately. Stiles didn't even start the engine.

Finally, he was the first to break the silence.

"How's your hand?"

"It's fine."

"Lydia-"

"It's fine!" Stiles only gave her a look that made her feel like a small child. She sighed. "There's a bruise but," she quickly continued before he had a chance to reply, "it's okay! Honestly."

Stiles took a deep breath. "Let me see it."

Lydia bit her lip, thinking it over, before showing him her arm. He held it gingerly, carefully examining it before bringing his lips to the most prominent bruise and kissing it tenderly.

He looked back up at her, the softness of his gaze sending butterflies to her stomach...wait a minute...

"What happened?" Stiles asked as Lydia let out a gasp. "Are you hurt? Is the baby-"

"No, everything fine," she assured him. "I just..." she closed her eyes, to focus on the sensation to be sure she wasn't making it up...but sure enough...there it was again. She smiled, "I just felt the baby move for the first time."

"Really?" Stiles asked, a smile forming.

Lydia nodded. "I mean, it's still too light for you to feel, but..." She trailed off. "Wow..they must have just woken up. They're moving so much."

"It's the guppies, right?" Stiles asked.

Lydia looked back at him, about to ask him how he knew that, but then she remembered their conversation after they found out she was pregnant.

"Yeah... the guppies." Lydia looked down at their hands where Stiles had intertwined their fingers. "Stiles...I need to know..."

"What?" He asked, confused.

"I need to know for sure that this baby is...that it's more than just a feeling that you're..." Stiles let his fingers go limp. "I just...I've been thinking about it for a couple of weeks, and no matter what, it's you and me in this together, but I need to know...if for no other reason than health history purposes. I spoke to the doctor at the last ultrasound, and there are a few different tests we can do...the least invasive one is a blood test..." Lydia stopped talking for a moment to look at Stiles, and she sighed. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine...no...you're... you're right. You need to know."

"What's wrong?" Lydia asked as she tightened her grip on his hand.

"What if...what if my feeling is wrong?"

"That doesn't change anything,"

"It changes the fact that there's somebody else out there that's influencing our kid's DNA! And we'll know it...and because we'll know it, eventually we'll have to tell them and they'll resent us, but mostly me since you gave birth to them, and all I did was sit back and lie to them for eighteen years."

"You waited to tell them until they were eighteen? Well that was your first mistake right there." Lydia joked, but Stiles didn't appreciate it. In fact, when Lydia really looked at him, he looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack. "Stiles..." Lydia said gently. "Calm down."

"I mean, maybe it's better if this kid doesn't have my DNA because anxiety can be inherited, and I'd hate to saddle some poor kid with this shit."

Lydia hadn't buckled up yet, so she crawled across the seat until she was in his lap. "Stiles, look at me."

"Oh God...what if it _is_ my kid, Lydia...think of all the things that I could be passing onto it. I can't-"

Lydia cut him off as she crashed her lips onto his. _How'd you do that_ she heard in the back of her mind. _I read somewhere that holding your breath could stop a panic attack. So when I kissed you, you held your breath._ It felt like she was remembering something, but...it was something that had never happened.

She kissed him harder, hoping it would trigger another memory or make her forget. She was fine with either. His hands came up to her waist, and slipped easily under the flowy shirt she was wearing, his thumb grazed the skin above the waistline of her pants.

 _I am absolutely positively 100% madly in love with you._ Lydia heard herself say in another memory, but this one was weird. It felt more like a memory of a memory, which didn't make any sense. She pulled away, breathing heavily as she rested her forehead against Stiles's.

"I love you, Stiles. I've loved you for as long as I can remember. And no matter what the results actually say, you're going to be this baby's dad. You already love it as much as I do..." Lydia let out chuckle, "maybe even more. So stop worrying, because no matter what happens you and I are going to face it together. You got that?"

Stiles nodded. "Yeah. I got it."

"Good."


End file.
